GETTING PHYSICIANS TO CHANGE OLD IDEAS TO USE NEW TECHNOLOGY
The Importance of Data in Electronic Health Records

Chicago, June 2007 – One of the great challenges in implementing electronic health records (EHRs) in small healthcare practices is to change the physician's mindset to see the direct benefits in providing seamless, efficient patient care according to Selling Physicians on EHRs: The Importance of Data published in the June 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Health Information Management Association.

In driving home the selling point to physicians, health IT advocate of Greenhouse Internists in Philadelphia President Dr. Richard Baron asserts that doctors need to look at electronic health records (EHRs) as an opportunity to capture more pertinent data as opposed to paper charts. By implementing an EHR system, physicians will gain the ability to share information and access patient records as well as quickly track trends. “Doctors are trained to look at records mainly being archival,” states Baron. “The core thing you want to do is give the doctors a stake in the integrity of the data.” “You do so by having them use the data in a way that helps them practice.”

However, the data is only as good as the information inputted in the system. Baron learned this firsthand in an 18 month data study by the Greenhouse Internists tracking mammogram rates in female patients. Poor communication and data entry affected the group's ability to retrieve accurate information leaving results disappointingly low.

The complete article is available in the June issue of the Journal of American Health Information Management Association.  

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